Quote of the Day: “What’s This? Six Thousand Words and Nobody Died?”

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From Francesca Borri, explaining why freelancers in war zones are paid so miserably:

The reason for the $70 per piece isn’t that there isn’t any money, because there is always money for a piece on Berlusconi’s girlfriends. The true reason is that you ask for $100 and somebody else is ready to do it for $70. It’s the fiercest competition. Like Beatriz, who today pointed me in the wrong direction so she would be the only one to cover the demonstration, and I found myself amid the snipers as a result of her deception. Just to cover a demonstration, like hundreds of others.

How on earth can there be so many people who are eager—eager!—to spend years living in the middle of a brutal civil war for no more than a tiny pittance? It’s not a surprise that there are people willing to do this. But so many?

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And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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